Interesting Flash Behavior

[SoloXCRacer]

Maybe I'm a little confused, but when I disable the flash to take a picture, the flash still activates. Now here's the behavior I've noticed. When you enable the flash and take a picture, the flash "flickers" when you take a shot. When you disable the flash and take a picture, the flash activates, but does not flicker. It just turns on and takes the photo. The flash is not as intense as when it's activated. It actually takes a pretty decent photo.

So my question is this the behavior that everyone else is seeing? I would normally say that this is a defect, but considering that the flash behaves differently between being turned on and off, I'm guessing this is by design. Also, when I take picture with adequate light and the flash set to "off", the flash does not activate at all (as what one would expect).

Is this the behavior everyone else is seeing on their phones?? My guess is that this is "PureView" behavior and even though you "disable" the flash, it will turn on at a lower intensity and shut off right before the photo is taken so it can take a better well lit shot. But I can see how this could confuse people because when you turn the flash off, it still turns on.


Flash "Disabled" -- Flash turns on and shuts off right before photo, low intensity

Flash "Enabled" -- Flash flickers, high intensity

Flash "Disabled" -- Does not turn on at all. Adequate light for photo when taken.

 

[Squachy]

Thats the assit light function or whatever.
It does that to allow the camera to focus on the object before taking the low light shot.

The flash isnt utilized FOR The shot, its used to light up the area BEFORE the shot so the lens can focus on the object better.

You can see it happen in some of those those low light comparison videos on youtube. some people think the flash is going off but it really isnt. I think you can turn it of or disable it...not sure how.

 

[SoloXCRacer]

Thats the assit light function or whatever.
It does that to allow the camera to focus on the object before taking the low light shot.

The flash isnt utilized FOR The shot, its used to light up the area BEFORE the shot so the lens can focus on the object better.

You can see it happen in some of those those low light comparison videos on youtube. some people think the flash is going off but it really isnt. I think you can turn it of or disable it...not sure how.

Ah Hah!! Yeah, go into the camera settings and there's an option for Focus Assist Light. It's set to on by default. If you turn this off, it'll work as one would expect. I can see how this could confuse someone. Interesting feature.

 

[andrewkeith5]

Ah Hah!! Yeah, go into the camera settings and there's an option for Focus Assist Light. It's set to on by default. If you turn this off, it'll work as one would expect. I can see how this could confuse someone. Interesting feature.

It's one of those things that confuses people because the Lumia 920 has a proper camera! You'll see digital cameras doing this all the time, the only difference being that digital cameras normally use a small red LED and 'proper' flash bulb, and of course this would be impractical/kinda pointless given that the Lumia 920 uses LEDs for a flash anyway.

 

[VagrantWade]

It's also been mentioned over and over again in reviews and threads on this forum.